1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present inventive concept relate to an image forming apparatus with a driving structure to drive a developing cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus forms an image on printing media according to an input signal. The image forming apparatus includes a printer, copier, facsimile and a multifunction device having functions of the printer, copier, and facsimile.
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus, which is a kind of image forming apparatus, includes a developing cartridge including an image carrier and a developing device and an optical scanning unit. The optical scanning unit scans light to the image carrier, which is charged with predetermined potential, to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the image carrier, and the developing device supplies a developing agent to the image carrier, on which the electrostatic latent image is formed, to form a visible image.
Generally, the image carrier and the developing device included in the developing cartridge are coupled to a coupler rotatably provided at a main body of the image forming apparatus in a state in which the developing cartridge is mounted in the main body to receive driving force necessary to form an image.
Particularly for an image forming apparatus having a structure in which the developing cartridge is coupled to a tray, which in turn is movably coupled to the main body, and is mounted in the main body through the tray, it may be necessary to move a coupler away from a moving route of the developing cartridge in order to prevent interference between the coupler and the developing cartridge when the tray is moved to mount the developing cartridge in the main body or to separate the developing cartridge from the main body.
In the conventional art, a rotary cam is formed at each coupler, and a stationary cam or horizontal cam having a shape corresponding to the rotary cam so that the stationary cam or horizontal cam engages with the rotary cam is provided, to move the coupler to drive the developing cartridge. However, the number of stationary cams is increased in correspondence to that of the rotary cams, thereby increasing the number of parts and increasing manufacturing costs. Also, a space in which the stationary cam is installed is increased, and therefore, it may be difficult to decrease the size of the image forming apparatus. For the horizontal cam, on the other hand, the direction in which force is applied from the horizontal cam to the rotary cam is different from the direction in which the rotary cam is moved, and therefore, it may be difficult to stably move the coupler as compared with the stationary cam.